ildren poisoned by sucking the ends of phosphorus matches. So you
see it was not unimportant for the workpeople, as well as for the public
generally, that something should be discovered equally effective to take
the place of this poisonous yellow phosphorus.

[Illustration: Fig. 12.]

I should like to show you what very different properties these two kinds
of phosphorus possess. For instance, if I take a small piece of the
yellow phosphorus and pour upon it a little of this liquid--bi-sulphide
of carbon--and in another bottle treat the red phosphorus in a similar
way, we shall find the yellow phosphorus is soluble in the liquid,
whilst the red is not. I will pour these solutions on blotting-paper,
when you will find that the solution of the yellow phosphorus will
before long catch fire spontaneously (Fig. 12 A), whilst the solution
(although it is not a solution, for the red phosphorus is not soluble in
the bi-sulphide of carbon) of the red phosphorus will not fire (Fig. 12
B). Again, if I add a little iodine to the yellow phosphorus, you see
it immediately catches fire (Fig. 13 a); but the same result does not
follow with the red phosphorus (Fig. 13 b). I will show you an
experiment, however, to prove, notwithstanding these different
properties, that this red and yellow material are the same elementary
body. I will take a little piece of the yellow phosphorus, and after
igniting it introduce it into a jar containing oxygen, and I will make
a similar experiment with the red phosphorus. You will notice that the
red phosphorus does not catch fire quite so readily as the yellow.
However, exactly the same result takes place when they burn--you get the
same white smoke with each, and they combust equally brilliantly. The
red and yellow varieties are the same body--that is what I want to show
you--with different properties.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.]

Then comes the next improvement in the manufacture of matches, which is
putting the phosphorus on the box and not on the match. This is why the
use of red phosphorus, was introduced into this country by Messrs.
Bryant and May. I have no doubt that many a good drawing-room paper has
been spared by the use of matches that light only on the box.

I cannot help thinking that the old tinder-box, which I have placed on
the table in a prominent position before you to-night, feels a certain
pleasure in listening to our story. Envious perhaps a little of its
successor, it neverth